Water monitor

Description:

The water monitor is a large species of monitor lizard. Breeding maturity is attained for males when they are a relatively modest 40 cm (16 in) long and weigh 1 kg (2.2 lb), and for females at 50 cm (20 in). However, they grow much larger throughout life, with males being larger than females.[2] Adults rarely exceed 1.5–2 m (4.9–6.6 ft) in length,[3] but the largest specimen on record, from Sri Lanka, measured 3.21 m (10.5 ft). A common mature weight of V. salvator can be 19.5 kg (43 lb). However, 80 males killed for the leather trade in Sumatra averaged only 3.42 kg (7.5 lb) and 56.6 cm (22.3 in) snout-to-vent and 142 cm (56 in) in total length; 42 females averaged only 3.52 kg (7.8 lb) and 59 cm (23 in) snout-to-vent and 149.6 cm (58.9 in) in total length,[5] although unskinned outsized specimens weighed 16 to 20 kg (35 to 44 lb). The maximum weight of the species is over 50 kg (110 lb). In exceptional cases, the species has been reported to attain 75 to 90 kg (165 to 198 lb), though most such reports are unverified and may be unreliable. They are the world's second-heaviest lizard, after the Komodo dragon. Their bodies are muscular, with long, powerful, laterally compressed tails.

Habitat:

The water monitor is disseminated by all monitor species and most inhabited large parts of Southeast Asia. Its rich deposits in the west from northeastern India and Sri Lanka over Bangladesh and Burma, as well as in the Gulf of Bengal offshore Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Continuing eastwards to its spread expands on the mainland via Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam north to southern China and south to Malaysia. He also settled Singapore and Borneo, the Indonesian islands of Java, Sumatra, and the Lesser Sunda Islands and Sulawesi to the Obi Islands, the easternmost occurrence of Bindenwarans. The living water monitors in the Philippines, which were previously allocated to the type V. salvator, are now considered separate species. As an opportunist of water monitor inhabits a variety of habitats to 1800 meters above sea level; However, the species is more of a lowland inhabitants of up to 600 m above sea level, and is very rare from 1000 m. Preferred habitats are brackish mangrove and wooded river banks, as well as general wetlands. In addition, are also rainforest, monsoon forest, and rarely inhabited drier habitats. Apparently Bindenwarane also able to inhabit anthropogenic landscapes like plantations and urban spaces.

Notes:

Found in my archives.